3.2-The Broken Regime
Revolutions
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Montesquieu's Influence
- Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws (1748) became a key text for French revolutionaries in the 1790s.
- Ironically, Montesquieu held a conservative, aristocratic worldview, making him a strange bedfellow for revolutionaries.
- He believed in separation of powers, balanced government, public consent, intermediary institutions, and context-specific political systems.
- Despite his conservatism, revolutionaries valued his authority on building just, rational, and stable governments.
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